Life Goals
by Blade of Justice
Summary: After going solo on a quest that proves to be more than she can handle, a chance encounter with Compa leads Ram to discovering just what her dream for the future is.


Ram had been stupid to think she could take on the monsters by herself.

A bunch of shark dragon skins lay all around the ground at her feet, but she was annoyed. She couldn't be proud of this.

She'd gotten really beaten up. She was sore all over, her health was low, and she was pretty sure there were other monsters around.

She could call for help and someone could be here before anything got really bad, but... She had said she was gonna do this herself. She wanted to do this quest all by herself. She was a grown up. It wasn't enough to beat the monsters. It wasn't enough to get all the items. She had to make it back and deliver everything too. It didn't count if someone came to baby her on the way home.

It just... didn't... count.

Ram's eyes were dropping. She was starting to fall to sleep... She was tired, huh... Maybe a nap would make her feel better. She'd wake up if she heard monsters, right? So long as she was quiet, she was pretty sure she wouldn't attract any monsters anyways... Then she could go on and take care of-

"Ah... Ram? Ram? Is that you?"

\- A talking monster?! They _had_ those now?!

Wait, no, that wasn't a monster. One of the booby monsters by her sister's standards, maybe, but other than that, it was just a person — a person Ram happened to know too. She wasn't sure whether she should be mad or sad that she had been discovered like this, when this was supposed to be her big awesome super moment of coolness, but she did know one thing for sure...

"Waaah... It is you! Ram, what are you doing out here?" She was trotting over now. Bounding. Without a care in the world. Not that Ram had any... most days... it was just that...

... that this newcomer's yelling and bouncing was attracting a fresh new random encounter on the both of them!

Ram heard the growls before she saw where they were coming from. She didn't know whether or not her new companion could see them, but she did at least know that she'd be a dissed grace to her sister's name if she wasn't able to take care of this now.

Whether or not she'd be okay afterwards, Ram wasn't sure about that... but that was her problem!

She was a big girl, after all-

She was! She really was!

* * *

"There we go... All better!" Compa smiled warmly at the Candidate, gently patting her head as she stood up. She brushed off her clothes and looked over towards where the monsters had been a few moments ago, just before the two of them had broken out their weapons and beaten them down. "I can't believe there were so many... You did a good job with them, Ram."

Ram wasn't sure what to make of this. She should have been fine with the fight, but after how long she'd been trucking out here earlier, even for low level punks like the ones that had just jumped them... That would have been close to a game over if she hadn't had someone buffing her and stuff, right...? So how come all the nurse had to say about how Ram had been acting now was, well...

"Oooh... Were you on a quest? You know, Nep-Nep does that too sometimes, she just jumps up and decides to go on them every so often by herself..."

Why was she talking like nothing had happened?

Before she realized she was doing it, Ram found that she was looking up at the nurse in awe.

Rom would have started crying in worry. Mina would have chastised her before getting to the care-giving. Blanc would have, well... been Blanc.

But this person, no, Compa... She just treated her like she would have treated everybody. _Anybody_ even. She wasn't looking down on Ram — well, _okay_ , she _was_ , but not like the way other people did! — she was just doing what she did.

Nobody had ever done that to Ram before. Not Nepgear, not Uni, not even Rom. Rom was her sister after all. They had their own ways of treating each other, but... it wasn't like this.

Looking up into the big, wide, open eyes of the nurse in front of her, Ram felt like she had been struck. The brunette girl hurriedly averted her eyes, cheeks flushed.

"I-I didn't need help!" And just like that, she started running her mouth. Maybe she was actually Uni's sister? She couldn't believe herself. Aaaah, what was she doing?! She was so embarrassed now! She had _finally_ met a big person that was nice, and now she had messed it up! "I... I coulda gotten home like that all by myself... I-I wasn't _that_ hurt!"

Seemingly unaffected by the outburst, the nurse crossed her arms behind her back and stepped backwards, before nodding to the girl... and then she held up a finger!

Here it came! The scolding!

Aaaah...! Ram had ruined it after all...

"Just because you _can_ do something by yourself doesn't mean you _have to_ , Ram."

... Eh?

Ram blinked.

Wah! She was being smiled at! She hadn't been prepared for this kind of attack!

"Don't you feel better now that I fixed you up?" Compa smiled cheerily at Ram. "Everyone has something they're good at, you know... Like how Nep-Nep is good at eating pudding, how Iffy is good at making funny attack names, and maybe how you're tougher than you look. But isn't it okay to have help?"

"Help?"

"Now that you feel better, can't you go back to doing something that much faster than if you had taken care of yourself? Even if you _could_ have, because I did it for you... Now things are easier! So..." Compa clenched her fists at her sides in an attempt to be motivational — she was almost successful, if not for the fact that such a high energy motion caught her so off balance that she stumbled in mid air and nearly caused herself to fall over. "Wa-wa-waaah! Goodesuness...!"

Ram couldn't help it. She burst out laughing. She managed to stop herself from pointing, but there was no way she could hold that much back... But Compa still didn't get mad, so... She must have seen something in Ram! She must have!

And wasn't it totally adult-like that she showed this side of her to Ram, someone younger than her?! I-It was, wasn't it?! She wouldn't show this kind of weakness to someone she wasn't okay with it being seen by, right...? S-So... ... What did that mean exactly...?

Wait, when had she started thinking along these lines anyway...?!

Ram's struggles and attempts at thinking like a big girl were interrupted by Compa grasping her shoulder. At some point, Compa had fallen to her knees during her flailing about — but while she looked so much more haggard than she had earlier, out of breath, raspy desus escaping with every other gasp, and hair poking out in every which way, there was something... irresistibly charming to Ram about the older nurse in that moment.

Irresistible. She had only ever thought of that big word her sister had taught her one Hilloween so long ago in relation to candy before, as it had been told to her by her big sister, but that was the only thing that came to mind right now.

"U-Um... So... Ram..." And there was Compa, attempting to steer things back on track. Perhaps she was going to leave the motivational speeches to people like Nepgear from now on. "You know... I don't get a lot of chances to practice normal nursing techniques since you and the others are all so strong..."

Compa trailed off. She had probably been planning to say this after her little motivational bit earlier, but while her original plan _might_ have gotten any number of her friends and companions to agree — certainly this stricken Ram with occasional hearts floating unknowingly above her head — as Compa was _now_...

"Hey, you should do something about that." Ram instead could only speak bluntly and point to Compa's skinned knee, an injury she had obtained during her flailing about moments prior, and the blood starting to spill from it.

"Huh? What do you..." The nurse tilted her head in confusion, before following Ram's gaze innocently. Was she just immune to pain, or was she one of those people Ram's sister had told her about that didn't feel pain the right way? Actually, Compa was looking a little pale now, wasn't she... Was it that cold? Oooh... Ram just imagined what Compa would look like wearing her coat... She _had_ to draw that later when she got back hom- "... R-Ram! I need your help!"

"H-Huh?! Me?!"

Why was Compa sounding so alarmed all of a sudden?

"Ram, do you see an other Rams around?"

And now she was calm?!

"Ummm... M-Maybe I'm actually Rom?"

What was going on?!

"Ram, please!"

"O-Okay, okay!"

* * *

As it turned out, what Ram had thought was a skinned knee was a little more serious than that. Compa _had_ skinned her knee, this much was true... but she had done it on the shark dragon skins Ram had left out after she had beaten those monsters up with Compa earlier. With how sharp those skins were, she hadn't really skinned her knee as much as she had... well...

Ram's skin turned green just thinking about it.

She was just lucky there had been extra shark dragon skin. One piece was more Compa than shark dragon now, and that was all she was going to say about the story.

"A-Ah... Um... Am I too heavy for you, Ram...?"

With the sound of a familiar voice in her ear to pull her away from her memories of that earlier incident, the green on her face vanished like it had never been there. A good thing, too, because her older sister would have _never_ let her live down having a trace of _that color_ , the color of _that_ _nation_ and _that goddess_ and _that person_ , on her body.

Back in the present, Ram, now transformed into White Sister, was carrying Compa in her arms and flying her back to Lowee's Basilicom. Just the thought of it brought a different color to her cheeks to replace the green that had been there a moment ago.

 _There was no way a prideful adult type person would be doing this without thinking something like "Aaah, a kid is carrying me, huh..." if they weren't okay with it! No way!  
_

"N-No way! I'm super strong!" White Sister hurriedly insisted, shaking her head back and forth just to further make her point. It wasn't like she wanted to show off how her pink hair matched Compa's while she was transformed or anything. "Actually, Sis is a big liar!"

Compa frowned. What did Blanc have to do with this? And what lie had she told?

"Umm... A liar...?"

"Big boobies aren't heavy at all!"

"... Oh..."

Although she had been treating her as she would have anyone up to now, Compa didn't have the strength of will to look directly into the eye of the girl that was smiling at her so innocently. It... It really was a good thing Ram had only said such a thing in front of her, at least Compa could be thankful for that...

Sensing something was in the air — were those big bouncy things a forbidden topic with Compa too...? — Ram decided it might be a good idea to change the subject, lest she loose the momentum she had somehow managed to gain with this older woman.

"Soooo... Heeeeey..." Even though it was normally a lot easier for her to be blunt and bold in this form, White Sister was finding it still somewhat of a struggle — maybe she just needed to get acclimated? Regardless, there she was, looking skyward, a tinge of pink to match her hair forming on her cheeks all the while. She just needed to think of a topic, that was all... That was all... Oh! There was one! "Yeah! What were you gonna say before you fell over and cut your leg up?"

"Oh... That?" Compa tilted her head — an action that led to White Sister puffing out her cheeks in an attempt to hold back her laughter, as it had caused all of her hair to shift from fluttering behind one side of the nurse's head to the other. "W-Wah! How did this happen?! Th-This is why... I always... let Ge-Ge..."

Giggling at the older girl's plight, Ram slowed down her flight so that Compa's hair wasn't going all over like it had been.

"Goodness... Thank you, Ram... That's muuuuuuuuch better."

Gabawawawawaaaah!?

Now she wanted to speed up again with that look on Compa's face! No fair! Dirty! Cheater!

"So... I was saying... What was I saying?" Compa looked at Ram, her expression devoid of that more commonly known as "a clue." "Ram, I don't remember..."

Wha-Wha-Wha... How was she supposed to... Ehhh... But Ram didn't really remember either!

"Did you hurt your brain when you fell over too?!" The CPU Candidate cried out in frustration. Despite her newfound fascination with this older woman, this was silly even for her! "Are you sure you're a nurse?! You could get in trouble for this you know!"

Rather than flail about again, as White Sister might have expected of her, Compa's eyes widened.

"Oh! Oh oh oh! That was it! I was talking about how I haven't been able to get much practice lately!" The girl felt so relieved. She could finally get back on track with this! Beaming up at Ram, at last, she-

"Aha! So you're basically saying you're an out of practice nurse! And you still took care of me!" White Sister grinned devilishly, the makings of a fiendish idea beginning to take shape. It was a good thing this conversation was happening while she was transformed after all! "Just think about what could have happened if you had treated me bad and I got sick 'cuz of it! You'd be wanted for killing Lowee's CPU Candidate!"

\- ah? Compa wasn't sure what had just happened, but she wasn't sure she liked where this conversation was going anymore! N-Not one bit! This girl was not to be trifled with!

"You know what that means?" Without waiting for her cargo to answer her — Ram was feeling particularly confident today, she felt — the CPU Candidate continued, her devious thoughts growing deviouser and deviouserer. She wondered if she could do it, if she could take a chance on this and get lucky... No, lucky was her middle name today, she was already doing it! "You gotta do what I say, or else I'll let everybody know, and then you'll be in trouble!"

Somewhere inside, Ram wondered for a moment if this was getting a little out of hand, but she paid that passing thought no mind. The boldness of her transformation wouldn't let her be distracted by such a careless thing like "concern for others" after all — not when she had this person to impress with how adult and not like a child she was!

"Wh... What you say... When you say 'what you say'..." Compa was looking up at Ram quizzically, in a way only Compa would probably be able to after being told that, for all intents and purposes, she was being _blackmailed by a goddess_. "What are you saying, exactly?"

"I... I'll..." Uh oh. This lady was smarter than she looked. Had she already figured out Ram hadn't thought that far ahead yet? She had only just planned so far as to get her in her control and stuff... But lucky for Ram, she could still work that into her favor! "I'll tell you when I figure it out! So you hafta live in fear of when it happens, okay?" Ram nodded seriously. "L-Lots and lots of fear, alright? You have to promise! You definitely have to promise me, okay? You have to to! You gotta!"

... Somehow it seemed like their roles had begun to reverse as Ram's threat had ended sounding more like a plea.

Compa found that there was something cute about all of this, and so despite this unusual situation that she now found herself in, she just kept on smiling. Perhaps she wouldn't have minded even if she was properly aware she was being blackmailed. Maybe she really did.

"If it's okay with you... Can I just live in fear that you might not come for me?"

Ram nearly crashed into a tree.

Aaah, it was no good! It was no good at all! She was too young for such bold lines! Worse than that, she didn't even realize that she was too young to understand that Compa hadn't even been _trying_ to be bold in the first place!

Thankful their destination was upon them, Ram remained silent for the remaining minute of the flight beyond a quick "W-Whatever you want! Just don't wet the bed!" after Compa's innocent question. With Compa out of her arms and herself out of her transformed state, at least she would be better able to address the situation. The ground had never seemed so wonderful!

Of course Ram would only be able to assess things as well as any Ram _could_ address or think about the situation, at any rate. Incidentally, a look into her mind at that moment would most likely resemble a drawing made entirely out of pink and red crayons.

More than anything, now she was starting to wonder if she would get in trouble for what she had done earlier. Even if this surprisingly mysterious older woman was going to treat her differently than all the rest of them, that didn't mean anyone else would if word got out! Should she have said that it had to be a secret too? Secrets were second only to pink swears, you know, so-

"Uhmmm...! You know, Ram, about what I was saying earlier?" Compa tilted her head, a curious expression crossing her face. Then again, maybe all of her expressions had an air of something like that to them. "Would you mind if I got back to that now...? I promised to be veeeery veeeeeery scared of you right after...!"

The CPU Candidate glanced back in Compa's direction. Oh yeah. She _had_ been saying something before Rom had taken over, hadn't she? What was it again?

"Yeah, you can do that." White Sister finally told her after taking a second to make sure she could still even talk to her without risk of crashing into anything. Then they would _really_ need some doctors...

"Well you know... We've both agreed I'm out of practice, haven't we?" Compa began, a pleasant, welcoming smile working its way onto her face. "And I can't ask anyone to help me get some, since I'd have to ask them to hurt themselves... That would just be awful, wouldn't it?"

The CPU Candidate stopped herself from pointing out that Compa could always just hurt people herself and _then_ treat them. That's what _she_ would do if _she_ were a nurse looking for some practice, but she got the feeling the bundle of squishiness in her arms wouldn't like the suggestion, and that knowledge made her even more frustrated about this.

"Oh... Yeah... Yeah! Th-That's kinda sucky, huh..." Ram was surprised. Even after everything that had happened to now, including Ram tricking her (in the language of adults, Ram would someday learn what she did to be more along the lines of "blackmailing"), Compa was still talking to her like...

"Right! What I've been _trying_ to ask this whole time..." Compa took a deep breath, before she looked right into White Sister's eyes straight on. "Ram. Could _you_ help me?"

Now that it had been asked... She could kinda see how what she had been saying... Maybe... Well, she had been going on about help before, so... Ummm...

Finally, Ram tilted her head.

"When you get like this, like you were earlier, could you let me practice on you?" The nurse's smile widened into warm, welcoming smile. It would be hard for just about anyone to deny her then, even if she was asking them to jump into a lake. "If you're going to be okay anyway, it would help me out a whole, whooole lot to get the practice!"

Was Ram able to catch on to what Compa was really driving at? Or had she bought right into it?

It didn't matter, really. Whether she understood Compa's game — that is, that she was trying to be able to help Ram out when she was hurt without hurting the girl's pride — or if she really believed her, Compa's manner of going about playing the game stood above it all for Ram. In a way, she was still looking at Ram like she was a kid, but considering who this was...

She probably did this kind of thing for everybody, didn't she?

No, it wasn't probably. Ram knew that she did this kind of thing for everybody. She had seen it. She had seen her try to get Nepgear's sister to eat eggplants in the same way. She had gotten that brown haired friend of hers to stop being stubborn during a fight thanks to this nurse talking to her the same way.

So... Even though she was talking to Ram like this... If it was this person doing it... Ram, to her surprise, found that she was actually... She was actually completely and totally okay with it.

... Sh... Sheesh...

Thank goodness they were here... Ram could set Compa down on the ground so the nurse didn't have to look at her for a second. She needed one.

Was she getting sick? It was getting warm out here...!

"Thank you, Ram," Compa braced herself against the side of the building, turning back to her "savior" with the same smile as before. "So what do you think?"

"Oh, ah, uh, that? Well... I _guess_ I can help if you _really_ need it..." Ram crossed her arms before giving Compa a nod. Somehow, she was starting to grin stupidly. "Yeah... Yeah! Hahahaha! I'll come to you every day! Every single day! You're gonna be the best nurse ever!"

Compa blinked.

"E-Every day?"

"Uh huh! You want my help, right?" As she returned to her human form, Ram puffed her chest out with pride. She suddenly felt extra motivated to start going on more quests like Nepgear and Uni did. She'd get super _duper_ beat up too!

The nurse nodded slowly. Something about this... didn't... seem quite right anymore...

"So I'm gonna help you, dummy!"

Anyone else would have given up at this point. She would have been called a brat, bopped on the head, or any number of other things.

But Compa, understanding starting to sink in, smiled at her.

"I'd better think of some way to thank you then..." she informed Ram pleasantly, placing her hand on the girl's head.

"J-Just make sure that cell phone lady isn't around when I come!"

... at which point the understanding turned to Compa's normal confusion.

* * *

It would later be known that it was in that moment that Ram had decided what her life's goal was. It was true beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"I... I'm gonna _marry_ that nurse!"

Without a doubt... From then on, that day would be the day known as the day that began Ram's illissit love affair with older women.

"'Kay... Can I have the tooth paste now?"

... or so she insisted to Rom while they brushed their teeth every night from then on, anyway.

"And she's gonna let me sleep on her boobies like pillows every night after our wedding!"

Let it never be said that Ram didn't dream big.


End file.
